I know stress. Maybe you do, too. I've spent a lot of time trying to
make stress go away. I've done a lot of wishing and hoping to no longer be
stressed and to be self-assured and at ease with whatever comes my way. Oh, to
be as cool as a cucumber!

Unless you live in a bubble somewhere - and even bubbles burst - there
will always be stress. Instead, I’ve decided to take on a new approach to
stress. Rather than trying to make stress go away, try to understand it - kind
of like keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. Okay, maybe
"enemy" is too strong a word to describe stress. Maybe
"frienemy" is more accurate. At any rate, dealing with stress is like
hitting a patch of ice on the road. Your knee-jerk reaction may be to swerve to
avoid the ice only to spin out of control. A better approach is to take your
foot off the gas pedal. Take your foot off the brake, too.Face the ice and glide over it.

When it comes to your stress, please don’t wait until you’ve hit
critical mass to do something about it. The best advice I can give is to take
pleasure in the simple things every day. This shop is all about simple
pleasures, little reminders that happiness is within us at all times - even
when we can't seem to find it very easily. So, why not take time for yourself
today and enjoy the elements of low-stress living?

You've probably heard this story before, but I really enjoy it every
time I read it. I hope you will, too.Here it goes…

The Starfish Story

~ Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the
ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning
before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the
shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach
littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both
directions.

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy
approaching. As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he
grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to
pick up an object and throw it into the sea. The boy came closer
still and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is
that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the
ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the
sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die,
unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands
of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to
make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as
far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a
difference to that one!” ~

Adapted from The Star
Thrower by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)

This simple story serves as a good reminder that:

YOU are worth time and
effort.

Maybe you can't help everyone, but you
can help someone.

Goals can be achieved one mini step at
a time.

I've never known anyone to just wake up one day and magically be
stress-free. What I do know is that by committing to practice one simple
relaxation technique or tackling one little task on your to-do list adds up day
by day. There's a cumulative effect to managing stress. Managing just a part of
your stress every day amounts to feeling great. There won't be a designated day
when you'll say, "Yes, this was the day when my stress got under
control." But, after some practice, there will come a realization that
somewhere along the way, things got better.